[Archy12345]

I need to show the term symbols for the transition from atomic oxygen to an O²⁺ ion.

I am working on finding J. First, I need to know the spins. However, I'm not quite sure how this works with 4 electrons.

I know S for an electron is 1/2, and I know I need to add up combinations, but if I just add combinations of all four, I end up with 4, 3/2, 2, 1/2. I don't believe this is correct. I've been looking online and in my textbook, but I can't find any good information on how this works when there are two p orbitals involved. Any help it greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Corribus]

Term symbols drive physical chemistry students nuts, so don't feel too bad about it.

You might check out this thread for some basics on how to determine term symbols.

http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?topic=72314.0

I'm not sure what you mean by "show the term symbols for the transition from atomic oxygen to O2+ ion". In the case of atomic oxygen, there are many possible term symbols. Do you mean the ground electronic state?

Either way, generally speaking you want to make a table of all possible arrangements and spins for a given electron configuration. So you should start by identifying what the electron configurations are for each species of interest. Then you can start to map out what the possible arrangements are.

[Archy12345]

I believe the question is asking me for something in the form of (²⁽ⁿ⁾⁺¹S_J)₁  (²⁽ⁿ⁾⁺¹S_J)₂.

And yes, the ground state for both O and O²⁺.

I'll take a look at the thread and see if it helps.